e-無

A monk asked Jōshū, “Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?” Jōshū answered, “無” (‘Mu’, a negation). Some earlier Buddhist thinkers proposed that animals *did* have Buddha-nature, others believed that they did not. Therefore, to answer “no” is to deny their wisdom, but to say “yes” is to blindly follow their teachings. Jōshū’s answer means that such categorical thinking is a delusion; yes and no are both right and wrong.